EU countries have decided on Thursday to open Ukraine’s EU membership negotiations without Hungary’s support.
Leonard Wilhelmus,
Elsa Osipova,
STT
The countries of the European Union have decided to start EU membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The president of the European Council talks about it Charles Michel in X.
In addition, the EU granted candidate country status to Georgia. Accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina will begin when the criteria have been reached at a sufficient level, Michel announced.
– This decision is a victory for Ukraine and all of Europe, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi comments on the opening of membership negotiations.
President of Moldova Maia Sandu on the other hand stated that Moldova is ready to accept the challenge and work hard for EU membership.
Hungary countered, but bowed
The EU starts negotiations with Ukraine despite the fact that the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán earlier today dashed Ukraine’s hopes of starting EU membership negotiations. Orbán announced that he sees no reason to negotiate on Ukraine’s EU membership.
Orbán recently called the start of membership negotiations a “bad decision” and said Hungary did not want to participate in the decision-making process.
– But the 26 member countries were adamant that this decision must be made, so Hungary decided that if the 26 countries decide to do so, they must go their separate ways. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision, Orbán wrote on Facebook.
Prime minister Petteri Orpon according to the decision of the EU countries required tough negotiations with Hungary.
– We had a very serious discussion about European security. After a tough discussion, Hungary decided not to block Ukraine’s membership.
The condition for opening membership negotiations is that no EU country opposes the opening of negotiations.
The road to membership is still long
However, the opening of negotiations does not yet mean that Ukraine will be accepted as an EU member in the near future.
There are still many questions to be resolved.
The main obstacle to Ukraine’s EU membership is the continuation of Russia’s war of aggression, but issues related to, for example, corruption and EU subsidies will also be difficult.
The negotiations are expected to last for years.
Sources, Reuters, AFP